Rapper guilty of bank robbery

A Spokane rapper who calls himself “Dead Poet” was found guilty Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court of armed bank robbery and attempted witness tampering.

John “Bobby” Vigil, 26, will remain in jail until sentencing in a few weeks by Judge Lonny Suko.

The unanimous jury verdict came after a week-long jury trial. It was delayed for a few minutes early Friday, before closing arguments, when one of 12 jurors did not show up.

After a brief delay, the judge ordered the trial to continue with the lone alternate filing the missing seat.

Vigil, who has made his own “Dead Poet” rap music CDs, took the stand in his defense Thursday. He claimed he wasn’t one of three men who held up Safeway Federal Credit Union in north Spokane on Nov. 26, 2006, and fled with almost $10,000.

The jury didn’t buy Vigil’s story that the third man inside the bank was his longtime friend, Dustin Rockstrom.

Vigil said he was at home taking a shower at the time of the robbery, but he admitted accompanying Rockstrom and his brothers, Greg and Brad, to Montana after the holdup. Vigil testified that he lied to an FBI agent about his whereabouts the day of the robbery and threatened a woman who was subpoenaed before a grand jury.

Dustin Rockstrom testified as a prosecution witness, telling the jury Vigil was at the credit union. Rockstrom pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and awaits sentencing.

The other co-defendants, Brad Rockstrom, 25, and Greg Rockstrom, 22, pleaded guilty in September to armed bank robbery and were sentenced to 45 months and 48 months in prison, respectively.